Preity Zinta Says Motherhood Changed Her Approach to ‘Batwara 1947’ (EXCLUSIVE)

For Preity Zinta, playing Hameeda in Rajkumar Santoshi’s “Batwara 1947” became deeply personal. As she stepped into the world of a woman trying to protect her family amid the upheaval of the Partition, Zinta found herself drawing on her own experiences as a wife and mother, which she believes fundamentally changed the way she understood the character.

Talking to Variety India, Zinta says, “For me, this was about the love of my family. The beauty of the script for me was that, however dark life could be, one ray of hope is enough to keep you going. This story is a story of hope.”

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Recalling a particularly moving scene in the film, Preity says, “Rajkumar Santoshi came up to me and asked me to think only of what is happening within the family and nothing beyond it. If I hadn’t been a mother or been married, I wouldn’t have understood this suggestion. I understood what it meant because I have my family. Even when we were shooting the train sequence… Sunny has done ‘Gadar,’ so he had an idea of the scenario with the trains and the massive crowd (during the Partition). But for me, it was painful when I did the scene. You won’t feel it if you are not into it.”

She further emphasizes how motherhood made her empathize with the women who faced the horrors of Partition. “Rajkumar Santoshi asked them to move around. I was thinking to myself, I have little kids. When I run out of diapers, I freak out. So what were the mothers doing at that point? Women and children experience the worst. So my character’s whole worldview was her family,” Zinta adds.

Reflecting on the film’s narrative, director Rajkumar Santoshi shares, “There are many layers in the film. Many times, a man puts his family in trouble due to his ego, ideologies or aspirations. This happens to Sikander Mirza, Sunny Deol’s character too. He takes permission from his wife. He also apologizes to her that his decisions might bring trouble for her and asks her to forgive him. He gives that respect to his wife and then she becomes her strength.”